GYMNASTICS EVENT SANCTION REVOKED

Lake Buena Vista– On Thursday, April 5th, an AAU staff member saw a blog regarding a Robert Garner and his involvement in an AAU sanctioned event.  That information was shared with the Compliance Department for review. We quickly determined that Mr. Garner was on our “Ineligible for Membership” list, and took immediate action:

- AAU learned that the event referenced was sanctioned by a member club called “Champions Gymnastics Academy”. Although a different individual is the director of the event, the event flyer indeed lists Mr. Garner’s name.

- AAU made the immediate decision to revoke the sanction due to Mr. Garner’s affiliation with the event operations.

- AAU’s Compliance Director contacted the event director, Ms. Jennifer Sawyer, to advise her of the revocation.  Ms. Sawyer did not answer, so a detailed message was left.  Our Compliance Director also followed up with an email notice of the revocation of sanction.

- The event was immediately deleted from our AAU database and online “Find an Event” page.

In partnership with Ron Ferris, the AAU National Gymnastics Chair, the AAU forwarded a notice to our clubs.

Mr. Ferris and all of AAU’s leadership and staff are deeply committed to setting and maintaining the highest standards of safety and monitoring in order to protect our AAU youth competitors.  Our practices and procedures are constantly evolving and improving, and we look forward to the upcoming release of the AAU Task Force Report and Recommendations.  Convened in December 2011, AAU’s Youth Protection Task Force and the Adult/Volunteer Screening Task Force are in the final stages of their work.  Once their joint report is issued, the AAU will move swiftly to implement their recommendations.